By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Technology’s come a long way since brick-style cell phones and 15-pound laptops of the 1980s, and so has the amount of information users store on their personal devices; whether it’s two-year’s worth of contact information, photos recently snapped at a nephew’s birthday party or a personal best Angry Birds score, that valuable material can be lost forever if one misplaces their hand-held device or, worst case scenario, the unit is stolen.
To help re-connect owner with their long lost iPods, Pads, Phones and other such items should the two ever become separated, local law enforcement agencies are offering electronic device registration to help owners recover their lost or stolen items.
“We get the information on the device — serial number, make, model, year and color — and input that data into our system so that if something does come up missing or stolen, we’ll already be ahead of the game,” Limestone Police Chief Stacey Mahan explained.
Having the electronics information on file with the police also means an increased chances of recovery should the device be found by a neighboring law enforcement agency.
Residents will even be able to registers their GPS units, laptops, cell phones, tablets, e-readers and other such electronics with the Limestone Police Department over the Internet once the town’s new web page is finished (town officials suggested the website would be up and running around May 1).
For now (and even after the site’s completion), residents can always stop by the Police Department to register their small electronics.
Caribou’s Police Department offers similar services for their residents; Chief Michael Gahagan explained that all residents need to do is stop by the department and fill out an information card containing the device’s make, model and serial number.
In 2010, the state of Maine Department of Public Safety’s “Crime in Maine 2010” report included a “Crime Clock,” which quantified (among other things) that in 2010, Maine experienced a burglary once every 71 minutes and 35 seconds; a larceny occurred every 21 minutes and 28 seconds.
Criminal activity aside, it’s a little easier to misplace a phone or tablet now than it was 30 years ago, when cell phones were nearly the size of a two-liter bottle; registering electronic devices with the local PD is a good way to help a lost or stolen laptop find its way home.
